A Medical Discharge

"Sometimes the captain of the team has to move the players about." That was the captain speaking last week, as Pakistan President Mohammed Ayub Khan privately explained the benching of Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The official version was that the wily, dapper Bhutto, at 38 one of Ayub's youngest Cabinet ministers in terms of age but the oldest in tenure of office, had resigned for health reasons. Truth to tell, Bhutto had never felt better. As all Rawalpindi knew, Bhutto had in fact been given a medical discharge by Ayub because he had become "inflexible."

In his 3 1/2 years as Foreign Minister, Bhutto had enthusiastically engineered Pakistan's "Red shift"--away from the West toward closer ties with Communist China. Involved was a balancing act that Ayub undoubtedly initiated himself to obtain arms for his quarrel with India, but the vitriolic Bhutto often seemed more martial than his field marshal. He hobnobbed with the lately ousted pro-Chinese Indonesian Foreign Minister Subandrio, openly disavowed Ayub's agreement in Tashkent to end the Indian war, rekindled old Indian hatreds by crudely referring to his neighbors as "Indian dogs," once threatened to pull Pakistan out of the U.N.

It was a performance that did indeed bring Peking's aid, from Chinese tanks and MIGs to rifles. But Bhutto's approach also helped bring an end to U.S. economic assistance a year ago, and eventually the pinch began to hurt. In the best tradition of middle-of-theroadmanship, Ayub began to veer back toward the West, beginning with a visit to Washington last December. Bhutto did not approve, and more and more Ayub turned elsewhere for counsel. In announcing Bhutto's departure, Ayub, who will take over the Foreign Ministry portfolio himself, insisted that it would lead to no change in Pakistan's foreign policy which, he said, is "based on national interest." But the definition of national interest can change: the inflexible Bhutto's bounce came just two days after the U.S. announced it was resuming aid to Pakistan.

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